VIDEO and PHOTO GALLERY
By JOHN ANDERSON, photo by Ella Green
CANISTEO — Wellsville football coach Tim Keenan took the head coach job of the Lions two years ago and made a promise: the team would play two more years of 8-man football and transition back to 11-man.
Once the Lions had the numbers — with an incredible thanks to a football-only merger with Genesee Valley and Belfast — Keenan then heard everything else. In 8-man football it’s all passing and senior quarterback Brennen Geffers won’t put up video-game numbers anymore.
Challenge accepted in a 32-14 win.
Geffers had the best night of his four-year career on Friday night, going 18-of-24 passing for 277 yards and four touchdown passes with one interceptions. On the ground, he had five rushes for 14 yards and a zone-read fake for a touchdown run, giving him five touchdowns in one game.
On defense at free safety, Geffers had an interception, two solo tackles and two assists.
“It was fun and it was very validating for everyone who was knocking us saying 8-man isn’t real football,” said Kennan. And especially for Brennen. We heard everyone saying ‘how would Brennen do with 11-man?’ Well, he had a 75 percent completion rate, the highest he’s ever had.”
On the receiving end of Geffers’ dimes was senior Trenton Green, who had seven catches for 132 yards and three touchdowns.
Green was also tough on defense with seven tackles, four of them solo.
If you try to double-team Green, Jack Davis is an issue. Davis, a senior had five catches for 120 yards and a touchdown while on defense he had a solo tackle, was in on six tackles and came up with a huge pass deflection to stop Canisteo-Greenwood’s last chance to stay in the game.
Coming into the season, the Lions knew seniors Matt Ritter and Xander Outman would be leaders and they did just that. Both had exactly 10 carries for 60 yards and on defense, Ritter had four solo tackles and was in on seven while Outman also had seven tackles, two solo and forced a fumble.
“We went back and forth with Matt and Xander and they would get us six to seven yards a rush,” Keenan said.
Gabe Black was in on seven tackles while Tyler Rahr had two solo tackles and was in on seven stops.
“There was a lot of gang tackling, we had six or seven guys coming out of the pile every time,” Kennan said.
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Another challenge with going from 8-man to 11-man football is on the line. The 8-man game features a hybrid guard who can also pull and run like a tackle. In 11-man, the roles are defined for each position. Kennan was proud of his line as they were near-flawless.
“We had everyone in the right positions. The challenge basically was trying to identify — after not having this style of play — who played where,” Keenan said. “We have one senior on the line and four players from Genesee Valley or Belfast, so that was awesome. Four players got their first offensive start on the line. Brennan was only sacked once, and that’s because he held on to the ball because he didn’t like what he saw.”
Two sophomores stood out particularly for the Lions.
“We ran for well — over 100 yards and over 300 yards of offense — and the entire line guys looked great,” Keenan said. “Jaden Brown stepped in as a sophomore at center and was perfect. They tried A-gap blitzes and tried to rush him and he stopped them. He also was perfect on snaps.”
Kennan continued, “Ty’Shaun Smith, a sophomore, had two pancake blocks on the first drive. And that’s what I saw on film so far! We ran behind him a lot and this was his first game ever, he did great.”
The Lions held a 14-6 lead at halftime over a charged up crowd at Canisteo. The school inducted new hall of fame members including the 1975 football team.
“They have a new coach (Bill Drake) and came out with new things and did a nice job scoring,” Keenan said. “Once we made an adjustment to traditional defense we were able to pull away in the second half. It’s a team win. it will be hard to pick a player of the week. Brennen had a great game, but you don’t have a game like this without the line. I’ve been a part of this program since 2021 and this was the best we’ve run. We’ve had to live and die by the deep ball.
Wellsville had one night to enjoy the win. Next up is the biggest rivalry in the Southern Tier, Hornell at Wellsville, 7 p.m.
“From what I’ve gathered going to other sporting events, it’s what small towns should be like. It’s the most direct rivalry Wellsville has,” Keenan said. “With social media, it seems to be the biggest game between the players and coaches. I am the only coach who is not originally a local guy (Kennan played at Wayne Central) but this rivalry runs deep through the coaching staff.”
In many years, Hornell-Wellsville was a game decided before the kickoff. And the Red Raiders were a lock to win. Now, it’s being looked at as a competitive game. But it would have never happened without the switch back to 11-man.
“I am so glad we are in a position to make this happen again. When I was hired as a coach, I had a two-year plan to get back to 11-man and thankfully we were able to accomplish that,” Kennan said. “And a big part of that is the agreement between Wellsville, Genesee Valley and Belfast and the administrators making it happen. We aren’t a team that just shows up and plays. We lifted, we worked together all summer, we did 7-on-7’s and we hope to continue this on Friday.”
Two photo galleries!! First from Steve Harrison:
Photo gallery from Ella Green:
